ANTICIPATING THE NEED

All Scripture references are to the New International Version (NIV)

DIY. You either hate it or love it. There’s usually some problem or other that arises when fixing up the old castle, whether it’s a dodgy set of taps or a chronically sticking door. Have you noticed that whatever the problem, there’s a solution for it? It’s as if some top-level brain sees the difficulty and says, ‘here you are, mate that should do the job.’ It’s almost as if someone has read your mind! Most of us, given enough time, will find a workaround. But others, faced with the same problem don’t just solve it and forget about it: they invent a tool or a gadget and, bob’s your uncle, it’s on the shelf at B&Q waiting just for you.

‘Thank You — Whoever You Are’

There’s a lot of goodwill implied in these mundane transactions — an implicit attempt to make life pleasant and convenient for others, or to pass on helpful knowledge for the sheer pleasure of it. True, there is often an underlying commercial logic in attendance; even so, there’s more to it than this.

Consider those greeting cards you pick up for birthdays, anniversaries, and for a multitude of other life-events. Ever noticed that the back half is cut slightly smaller than the front half? That’s so you can open it without having to fiddle it with your fingernail or blow on it to separate the two halves. Or take our many public parks and gardens, libraries, amenities for the elderly or infirm, free software, and even Royal Mail all ubiquitous, generalised expressions of goodwill.

The common experiences of life generate a sympathy and compassion with our fellows that is organic. We are able to enter into the feelings of others because our experiences are, though not identical, close enough and, with a bit of unselfish imagination, we can get an idea what they are going through. Evolutionists will argue this bonhomie has merely been thrown up from the competitive stew, a sort of evolutionary side-dish, an accident arising from the normal, social interactions of a combative species obliged to ‘get along’ with one another. Selfish altruism.

But, there’s a more satisfying way to look at it.

The View from Down Here

The Book of Ecclesiastes is a rather pessimistic portrayal of life on earth. A cheerful few minutes spent in this book reveals the theme:

Meaningless! Meaningless! . . . Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. . . . For who knows what is good for a man in life, during the few and meaningless days he passes through like a shadow? Who can tell him what will happen under the sun after he is gone? . . . As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.

— Ecclesiastes 1: 2; 6: 12; 9: 12

Will the last person to leave the planet please turn out the lights!

Here we are exposed to the philosophy of life from the standpoint of the unbeliever. Mankind is an incidental adornment, with no purpose and no permanent address in the Universe. Read it and weep!

This book of the Bible, written by Solomon (Chapter 1: 1), and coloured by the disappointments consequent on his life of disobedience, emphasises the general experience of mankind under the curse of sin and death. It provides us with a lens through which we can see life at its darkest and most useless. If we stopped here the outlook would be bleak.

Judging from the popularity of the sceptical, evolution-based view, we might conclude that many are quite content with an ultimately meaningless existence. In reality, most people do not conduct their lives consistent with such a philosophy; they continue to attach importance and purpose to the things one would expect family, friends, health, happiness, and so on, and they imbue many aspects of life with meaning and social value.

Collectively, the human race is forward-looking, hopeful, and imbued with the steady belief that obstacles can be overcome indeed, more optimistic in the sum of its parts than individual opinion would suggest. Belief in a beneficial Creator is so widespread that the persistence of the view requires a better explanation than is usually offered by the sceptics. We maintain that faith itself is the evidence of God. That is, this attribute of the human mind signals to us that it has been implanted in our nature as a token of hope. As the Apostle Paul tells us —

The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

— Romans 8: 20-21

Try Someone Else’s Shoes

No difficulty or dilemma of human existence is entirely unique. A wide range of experiences is encompassed in human life, and the various needs are similar, regardless of time, place, or history. This observation is the essence of the permission of evil, a linchpin tenet of Biblical doctrine, but the most poorly answered question in standard theology. (The Heaven versus Hell formula of creedal Christianity is an inadequate response.) The hopeful purpose underlying the reign of evil is the counterpoint to the gloomy view of Ecclesiastes.

For the problems of the human condition there is a suite of solutions, made available by a loving God, the top-level Intelligence. It is necessary, of course, to look in the right place. If we are satisfied with the status quo, we may choose to live out our brief life as best we can and ignore the alternatives. But for the earnest enquirer this won’t be good enough.

This is where faith comes in. For only faith can lay hold of the promises in the Word of God and appreciate what it offers.

Although the Scriptures provide a shrewd assessment of the human condition, they are not intended to correct the problems of the here and now. Jesus performed His miracles of healing for only a tiny fraction of the nation of Israel. He did not address the problems of water quality or currency reform or the state of housing. His essential mission was to call out the true believers with a view to their subsequent exaltation to reign with Him in His Kingdom. Under such a reign there will be wide-sweeping, radical reform of the conditions which now prevail as a result of the curse of sin and death, and a restoration of all the privileges and blessings forfeited by the sin of Adam.

All mankind will be the beneficiary of this process. ‘For he [God] has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead’ (Acts 17: 31). That a time of blessing for the world is forecast by the Apostle Paul’s words is evident from the corollary event to which he refers: Christ’s resurrection. This singular event is a consolation, not a threat. Elsewhere, Paul asserts the spiritual poverty of a life on this earth which has no prospect of a resurrection beyond it (1 Corinthians 15: 17-19). Christ’s reign will be a time of righteousness in action, involving the rule of law, the application of fair-minded justice, and a process of salvation for the world. For, as the Apostle John tells us (1 John 2: 2), Christ ‘is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world’ (emphasis supplied).

These texts, studied in the light of other Biblical evidence, will go some way to dispelling the myth of elitism in many Christian circles — that ‘we’ are saved, but ‘they’ are slated for eternal torment. We do not argue for universal salvation to eternal life. The Scriptures teach plainly that the individual has ultimate responsibility for his or her everlasting fate. Only after all efforts to win the sinner to faith and repentance have been exhausted in the Millennial Age will the judgment be meted out: death without remission, extinction. It is folly to pretend that in this present, imperfect world any who lack faith can be judged on such a weighty matter as fitness for eternal life. Election and Free Grace belong to two different dispensations. We should keep them separate.

God has anticipated all the needs of His creation for individuals of faith now and for the world in general in Christ’s reign to come. The Kingdom of the Son will accomplish the ends prescribed in the Plan of the Father. Then the prayer of Matthew 6: 10 and the reality will be in alignment:

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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